Rains wreak havoc in states

Heavy rainfall over the past week has claimed 15 lives and affected nearly 1.9 million people across West Bengal. There is a “flood-like situation” in the southern districts, the government said on Sunday.

More than 26,000 houses have been destroyed and the situation looks grim as more water is likely to be discharged from the Durgapur barrage and other reservoirs in the Damodar Valley.

East Midnapore and West Midnapore face an additional threat of release of water from the Kangsabati barrage.

“The district magistrates of Howrah, Hooghly, Burdwan and East Midnapore have been alerted,” state irrigation minister Manas Bhunia said. “Officials of the irrigation department have undertaken repair of breaches on the Damodar embankments at five places in the Udaynarayanpur block of Howrah district.”

In Uttar Pradesh, eight persons were killed in the past 24 hours. Two each were killed in Ballia and Bhadohi districts, three in Pratapgarh and one in Etawah district, officials said.

In Jammu and Kashmir, flash floods triggered by torrential rains have caused a loss of R25 crore to private and government infrastructure across the Jammu division.

Fifteen people have died and more than 70 have been injured in flood-related incidents in Jammu, Samba, Kathua and Poonch districts.

Two Vaishno Devi pilgrims were killed in a landslide along the 13-km long Katra-Bhawan yatra route.

“We are still collecting the details regarding the damage suffered by the people. Several government departments have also suffered losses,” said Pawan Kotwal, divisional commissioner, Jammu.

In Punjab, at least 14 people were killed in Ludhiana and Jalandhar as heavy rains continued to lash the state.

“We are keeping a close watch on the situation and I have directed all officers not to leave the district for four days. People can call the control room numbers 0161- 2414932 and 0161-2432100 in case of emergency,” said Ashish Chaudhary, deputy commissioner, Ludhiana.